Ten Years Of Hell

From Allison Kilkenny at True/Slant:
She quotes extensively from a couple of sources that are definitely "left-leaning", but nonetheless make substantive points.

The people who committed the fraud that led to the collapse aren’t going to jail, the press is ignoring this fact, and that’s a bad thing.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are severely weakening the economy.

The U.S. has the greatest income inequality, highest per capita prison population and worst health conditions of all high-income countries, and yet the poor remain politically invisible domestically, and abroad.

And while Obama plans a budget freeze, economists are saying a second stimulus and increased entitlements are badly needed, which requires government understanding that deficits — in the short run — are a good thing.

Then she links to Dan Froomkin at Harvard's Nieman Watchdog (yeah, yeah it's Froomkin, but the guy still knows a few things, and we hafta relearn how to listen to guys who actually know things)

No. 1: The middle class may never be the same again
No. 2: The recovery could take a really long time
No. 3: The recovery could only be temporary
No. 4: Then what? This time, we don’t have the tools to get out of a recession
No. 5: The ‘very serious’ people in Washington are still obsessed about the deficit
No. 6: Whatever is making the stock market go up could go away
No. 7: The hugely irresponsible financial sector remains unchastened

Tricksterism And Thuggery

Ok, so I posted about Lil Jimmy O'Keefe and his newest escapade in NoLa; and I wondered at the time who would come forward and help him out. Well, soo-prize, soo-prize, soo-prize. He suddenly and magically appears on Cluster Fox claiming he was only trying to help Sen Landrieu's constituents get the good government they deserve; and that getting busted and then charged with a few FEDERAL FELONIES was just a big misunderstanding. Gosh.


So now, I'm thinking this has become a national story with national press exposure, and it'll be harder to seat a jury that isn't at least partly aware of the politics involved; and that makes it harder to prosecute the crimes. Gosh, you don't suppose that's what Cluster Fox had in mind, do ya?

Next question: who's paying this guy? What're his means of support?

Into The Lions' Den Again

So Obama goes to the Repub Retreat and knocks 'em around so bad that Cluster Fox has to cut away from their live coverage.

Now he's planning to go to the National Prayer Breakfast, and the lefties are semi-indignant and saying he's lending credence to a bunch of fratfucks like The Family. Roll tape:


I'm interested to see if Obama will call these guys out too. He runs the risk of being labeled preachy, but he gets that from a lot of wingers anyway, so that's a wash. But he could score some real points with 'moderates and independents' who haven't paid much attention to these kinds of seriously sketchy power groups that operate in the shadows. It'd be good for all of us if he shines a nice bright light on The Family and it's direct ties to some really shitty things going on in politics. Could be fun.

But the real, real story here is probably that Obama is busily working behind the curtain - he's got all his guys on the phones, calling all the wingers in the database, telling them that he feels perfectly comfortable smackin' the shit out of 'em in their own kitchen (and on camera) unless they dial down the bullshit and start working with him. I think we'll know how it's going by what he says at the event. If he hits 'em over the head with a chair like he did with the Repubs, then he's trying to give them some additional schooling. If he's warm and fuzzy, then he prob'ly got some level of commitment from them at least to ease up on the knee-jerk obstruction crap.

The Spending Freeze

Cutting the budget by demanding cuts in "discretionary spending" always sounds like a great idea until you realize you're not likely to find the biggest number of wasted dollars in the smallest of the budget items.

I haven't looked at Obama's new budget proposal yet, but does anybody really believe there's gonna be a whole lotta change in the percentages?  So here's the basic layout in a package totaling $3.8 Trillion:

$906 Billion = Defense, DHS, VA
$790 Billion = Social Security
$418 Billion = Safety Net Programs
$760 Billion = Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP
$304 Million = Debt Service
--------------
$3,178,000,000,000.00 (subtotal)

$622 Billion is what we have left for everything else (Agriculture, Treasury, Commerce, Labor, Education, State, Justice, Transportation, Interior, HUD, Energy).  So go ahead - cut the crap out of it.  Don't just freeze it and not let it grow with inflation; cut it back by 10%.  No, let's cut it by 20%.  If that's all that happened, it looks like we'd make up the current deficit in about 15 years.  Unfortunately, drastic cutbacks actually have the opposite effect on an economy.  If you take a lot of money out of the economy, then you make it harder for everybody to make any headway.  The truth is that while you can spend your way to oblivion, you can't save your way to prosperity.

It's all pretty fucked up, guys.  We're not gonna fix anything until we step up and take a long hard look at all of the budget, including Defense and Medicare and Social Security.  No sacred cows allowed.  It's painful and the ramifications will be felt deeply for a long time.

We Are So Fucked

We get a taste of things to come from a story in The Denver Post today.

In spite of the obvious to the contrary, this gives the Grover Norquists of the world another chance to spin it out as further 'evidence' that any and all government is worthless and should be discontinued.

Anatomy Of "The News"

Ten Years Of Hell

Maybe this is why I still feel shitty even tho' we got good news about GDP growth.
(click for larger image)

Focus On The Tebow

It Came From Davos

It's not likely to get any traction here because we're having a really hard time getting out of our own way, but the consensus emerging from Davos is that economies need guidance, and that  free markets need supervision if they're to stay free.

But hey - ever hopeful.  Read this: David Ignatius, WaPo

The Teleprompter Meme

Via FactCheck.org, Obama's addiction to the teleprompter isn't quite what the wingers want us to believe.  Well, I'm shocked - y'mean the wingnuts would actually make shit up!?!

The picture circulating thru the blogosphere:

The reality of the part of Obama's visit that was spent with the 6th graders: